• The Asperger Syndrome (obsolete even autistic psychopathy and schizoid disorder of childhood), especially with a date of her age-appropriate language (according to the ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria for a diagnosis – after a while Gillberg & Gillberg delayed language development a possible diagnostic criterion represents) and a correct from a formal point of view of language. People with Asperger syndrome are often clumsy motor.

To form the circle of pervasive developmental disorders according to classification of the diagnostic manuals ICD-10 are in addition to autistic disorder (in the strict sense) but also the

• Rett syndrome and Heller’s syndrome (disintegrative psychosis of childhood) that have similar symptoms, but differ in the course of autism. In Rett syndrome is now also a characteristic of this genetic alteration detected.

Kanner took the term “autism” narrow, which corresponded broadly to the so-called infantile autism today (hence: Kanner’s syndrome). His view gained international recognition and became the basis for further autism research. The publications, however Asperger described “autism” were somewhat different and at first received little international. This was the one taking place simultaneously at the Second World War, partly because that Asperger published in German and it’s not translated into English texts for decades. Hans Asperger himself was called by him the syndrome described “autistic psychopathy”. The English psychologist Lorna Wing (Ref: Wing 1981) led her away in the 1980s and the name of an Asperger’s Syndrome. Only in the 1990s, Asperger’s international research reputation acquired in professional circles.

Allen autistic disabilities are impairments in social behavior in common: difficulty in speaking with others (for example due to monotonous prosody), been said to be interpreted correctly, use facial expressions and body language and understand.

Core symptoms associated with autistic disabilities is primarily the difficulty of communicating with other people (first and second diagnostic criterion). Alternatively, stereotyped or ritualization practices (third diagnostic criterion) explores all the core symptoms of autistic disabilities. Autistic people show fundamental differences from non-autistic people in the processing of sensory impressions and the way the discernment and intelligence. The differences in perception is explored as a core symptoms of autism.

The theory made sense. One of the most striking features of people with autism is their inability to imitation, empathy and understanding of the intent of the gestures of others. If mirror neurons are crucial for social interaction, it was logical to think that something is wrong with this brain system. In fact, some studies appeared to confirm the hypothesis.

But these works were overlooked something important. “No evaluated the selectivity of cortical activity in areas of particular movements mirror system,” says principal investigator, Ilan Dinstein, Department of Psychiatry at the University of New York (USA). This selectivity of movement is not simply the distinction that our brain makes every gesture, by storing a single neuronal response.

That is, when we see someone with a closed fist with the thumb pointed up a number of activated neurons, other than one which is ‘light’ when the thumb is down. The same happens when you run a gesture. This allows an accurate perception and interpretation of the observed motions. With repetition, moreover, these subpopulations engaged in selective adjusting movement.

According to the mirror system hypothesis, people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have weaker responses in these neurons and reduced adaptation. However, Dinstein and his colleagues reasoned that if the studies with monkeys have not provided evidence of a causal relationship between the mirror system and the ability of primates to understand the meaning of a particular movement, it is possible that in humans is similarly.

So a new experiment designed to determine the activity of mirror neurons in people with ASD and concluded that its adaptation to the observation or repeated execution of a gesture, in this case the hand was normal. This finding suggests that the difficulty that these individuals have to communicate socially is not due to a malfunction of this system.

“Our research focused on a key aspect of motion perception that previous studies had overlooked, the ability of neuronal populations from areas of the mirror system to distinguish different movements of his hand,” explains Dinstein. “The finding that these groups and normal cells respond selectively to a particular gesture discusses the existence of cerebral dysfunction in this system,” he adds.